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It was in the "merry month of May," in the year 1487, scarcely two
years after Richard's overthrow at Bosworth, and Earl Richmond's
usurpation of the English crown by the title of King Henry the
Seventh, that a great armament, landing on the barren island of
Fouldrey, took possession of the castle, a fortress of great strength
commanding the entrance to the bay of Morecambe, and a position of
considerable importance to the invaders. It occupied, with the
outworks and defences, nearly the whole area of the island (a few
acres only), two or three fishermen's huts at that time being
irregularly scattered on the beach below. Built by the monks of
Furness in the first year of Edward III., as a retreat from the
ravages of the Scots, and a formidable barrier against their
approaches by sea, it was now unexpectedly wrested from its owners,
becoming a point of resistance from whence the formidable power of
Henry might be withstood, and in the end successfully opposed.

A royal banner floated from the battlements: the fortress had been
formally taken into possession by the invaders in the name of their
king, previously proclaimed at Dublin by the title of Edward the
Sixth. The youth was crowned there with a diadem taken from an image
of the Virgin, priests and nobles espousing his cause with more than
ordinary enthusiasm; and Henry, in the second year of his reign, was
threatened, from a source as unexpected as it was deemed contemptible,
with the loss of his ill-gotten sovereignty.

Lambert Simnel, according to some historians, was the real name of
this "pretender;" but there be others who scruple not to assert, that
he was in reality the unfortunate Earl of Warwick, son to Clarence,
elder brother of Richard III., and that he had made his escape from
the Tower, where he long suffered an ignominious confinement by the
cruel policy of Henry. The prior claims of this young prince to the
English crown could not be doubted, and Margaret, the "bold" Duchess
of Burgundy, sister to Edward IV., had furnished the invaders with a
body of two thousand chosen Flemish troops, commanded by Martin
Swartz, a brave and experienced officer. With them came the Earl of
Lincoln, related to Edward IV. by intermarriage with Elizabeth, the
king's eldest sister.

This nobleman had long entertained ambitious views towards the crown;
his uncle Richard, it is said, in default of issue to himself, having
expressed the intention o